A few nights ago there was a story on the news about a homeless man who had died of 'natural causes' in an aban-doned incinerator - I forgot what parish. The story said the man had been living there for years, leaving me to believe he might have had one meal too many from the garbage bin.

There was a woman in that story angered by the situation and who blasted the Government for not doing anything to help the man before he died. She, I feel, unfortunately represents where too many of us are at in Jamaica today.

This angry woman told the reporter that she passed the man there every day: Why didn't she do something to help him?

'Each one helps one'

And I am sure that she was not the only one who passed by that incinerator daily, but did nothing to help. Whatever happened to the mantra 'each one helps one'?

Clearly she, like the so many others who passed that man daily and turned their heads as they did so, or just simply saw him as part of the landscape, has learned nothing from life. It would have been easier for them to pool their resources and offered this man some help but this is Jamaica today, where the catch phrase is not 'each one helps one' but rather 'every man for himself'.

And why would they really want to depend on the Government? That's the thing I don't get. In case they haven't realised what is going on, the Government has its hands full just trying to get its head wrapped around the upheavals going on in the world with regards to the global financial meltdown, and closer to home, our serious crime problem.

The former issue has already K-Oed Audley Shaw and I envision even more casualties in the near future.

Bring criminals to justice

With regards to the latter, the Government has been in Parlia-ment for weeks now trying to re-invent the wheel when it comes to enacting legislation they believe will help bring criminals to justice.

I have a little secret for them. Until they find the will, they could enact enough legislation that would bury Gordon House under the resulting paperwork: crime is still going to be a problem and a major one too.

Social programmes have to be fast-tracked and the idiot police-men who are going around shooting first and asking ques-tions later have to be reined in. There is little point to community policing and other such social measures when for every citizen these programmes win over they lose entire communities because of cops who are nothing but murderers in uniform.

So you see, the Government has its hands full from just this issue alone and we want to sit by and wait for them to help a homeless man who lived in an incinerator? That is like having someone throw a grenade on our veranda and we choose to wait for someone to come remove it before it blows up when we could have removed it ourselves.

That, to me, makes absolutely no sense.

Jamaica a better place

There are things that each of us can do each day that together will make Jamaica a better place to live but until we get off our collective butts, nothing is going to change.

These are not the movies in which we are the proverbial damsel in distress who patiently waits for a hero to come save us even while knowing that he is engaged in a battle for his very life against the forces of evil.

No. That script doesn't wash anymore. This is a different world now. This is the world where there is no damsel. Instead, there is a partner who stands back to back with the hero fighting battles on different fronts hoping that, with the grace of God, we will emerge victorious.

This is not a fantasy anymore. We have to do our part too. If we don't, we run the risk of facing many more casualties like that man found dead in the incinerator last week and the only people we can truly blame for that reality are ourselves.

Send comments to: shearer39@gmail.com